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Red Dawn, Concluded With barely any fuel in the tanks and RCS running low as well, the lander module is in no condition to maneuver to docking range. Luckily, the main ship comes equipped with a probe core for just this sort of contingency. The main ship maneuvers itself to meet up with the lander at the far side of the planet, then burns to kill relative velocity when in range. It points itself at the lander and even provides the closing burn -- the little RCS burn that sends the two ships towards each other. From there, all Jeb has to do is keep the lander pointed the right way and make corrections when needed. Soon enough, against all hope, Jeb docks with the mothership. Once docked, Jeb starts an injection burn to take him straight home. Some fiddling with maneuver nodes finds a return trajectory that will bring me to Kerbin in about 2 months, leaving just over 2 months of life support in the tanks. I make the burn and just like that Jeb is on his way home with tons and tons of science. Soon enough the Interplanetary comes thundering into Kerbin's SOI at 6 km/s. I burn retrograde as hard as I can, slowing down to 4.4 km/s, and then use the very last of the fuel and RCS to get a 28km periasis. The ship zooms towards Kerbin's atmosphere, shutting solar panels and deploying the heat shield as it goes. And then the ship falls to 50,000 meters and all hell breaks loose. The engine heats up quickly; it's glowing red instantly, and the overheat bar fills quickly. The engine is more durable than it seems, though; it holds for a while, the red bar nearly reaching the top and quivering there. But soon -- maybe 20 seconds into the real turbulent area -- it blows up. Without the protection of the engine, it doesn't take long for the small grey tank to explode; this is followed by a series of massive explosions as the solar panels and life support kegs blow up as well. I try to right-click the orange tank to keep track of its temperature, but in the huge fireball that follows I cannot. The whole screen fills up with orange and white as a huge explosion shakes the sky. Then, bursting through the ball of flames, comes a white-hot cone. The heatshield survived, and so did the pods it protected! It comes crashing through the sky, burning-hot; I check its temperature and find it to be burning at almost 6,000 degrees. Jeb's grin never fades as the ship continues to slow down -- and then the biometric sensor, which sits between the heat shield and the command pod, suddenly explodes. I'm not sure why -- it was behind the heat shield -- but somehow it heated up and blew up. While the sensor itself doesn't matter, without it the heatshield tumbles away and Jeb's cupola flies through the air unprotected. It quickly heats up to a toasty red glow. I transfer Jeb and all of the data into the lander, but I know it doesn't matter; there is no way that the lander will survive reentry. If the cupola blows up, Jeb is dead. Miraculously, the cupola holds. It heats up to over 1,500 degrees, but then rapidly cools down as the craft leaves the atmosphere again. I check the map -- the trajectory goes up pretty high, but Jeb will come home. I move him back to the cupola and wait. Jeb lands safely at home and I decide to do some unmanned missions for a while.

Red Dawn, Continued With the changes to the crafts involved made, the Red Dawn mission is ready to begin. The Interplanetary IV is set up on the launchpad, and Jebediah takes his place as pilot at the last moment, pulling rank over Gergun Kerman who was initially slated for the mission. With a mighty roar, the engines come to life and the massive lifter slowly rises from the surface. As fuel is burned, the thrust to weight ratio of the lifter quickly rises, and soon the lifter is barreling through the atmosphere at high speeds. Still using the first stage, the craft begins its gravity turn; a bit later the first stage is jettisoned, and the next takes over. The craft shoots forwards, heading for the sky. The second stage is used up in the circularization burn and is decoupled just a few moments into the transfer burn. Still massive, the Interplanetary IV makes its way towards Duna. I find a transfer window that's low on dV but takes 100 days to reach. With 230 days of life support, I decide to take the risk. Jebediah fires the engines, and the Interplanetary is on its way to Duna. Soon enough, Duna comes into sight. The tiny red marble grows and grows until it fills the sky, at which point Jeb prepares to aerobrake. The solar panels are retracted and the ship is turned prograde. The great heatshields atop the lander's engines are deployed, blocking the view of Duna. The ship hurtles into Duna's atmosphere, moving quickly. The heat shields redirect the superheated plasma away from the ship as it sinks to a periasis of only 10 kilometers. The RCS tanks on the main engines are far enough back that they heat up and explode just as the ship reaches periasis. The main fuel tanks heat up as well, but the ship rises before they can reach dangerous levels. Then another explosion rocks the ship. The exploding RCS tanks prevent the ship from righting itself as the thrusters run dry, and it turns slightly; then the shields right the ship, jerking it back straight. The jerk causes enormous G-forces to act upon the ship, and 3 of the solar panels explode. Luckily, there is enough built-in redundancy for that to cause little concern. The ship quickly climbs again, caught in Duna's orbit. After a correction burn to bring the apoasis lower and the periasis out of the atmosphere, Jeb gets into the lander and prepares to decouple from the Interplanetary. The Red Dawn lander is tested on Kerbin and proven to be able to reach orbit there; therefore I judge it capable of a Duna landing and return. The lander decouples and makes its way towards Duna's surface, using parachutes to slow down. It takes much more fuel to land than I had hoped, as the parachutes do little to help and the engines don't seem particularly effective. But the lander lands safely, and Jeb performs the tests required by KASA standards. He then spends some time in EVA, building red sand castles. Realizing how little fuel I have left, I decide to take drastic measures, manually shutting off the central engine. I start burning with the radial engines and instantly stop as I find the problem: I used decouplers instead of stack separators to attach my heat shields to the engines, and the decouplers were still there. I thought that it would only have a graphical effect, but the decouplers actually made it impossible for those three engines to provide any thrust; they just used fuel for nothing. I begin to fear that Jeb will never be able to return from Duna, and weigh my options. If I burn the three useless engines at enough power, I'd be able to generate the electricity to send back the science I already have. Jeb would die, but the science he acquired would be sent back home. On the other hand, I could disable the three radial engines but keep them attached in order to use their fuel, then burn the center engine and return to orbit using it alone. The lander is untested for such a maneuver and is likely to fail, rendering me with no Jeb and no science. But we leave no man behind. So Jeb repacks the chutes, turns off the radial engines, and takes off. Somehow, Jeb makes it into a 48X52 orbit using the last of his fuel. And I mean the last; at the end of his burn, he was left with just a few liters in the tank. Can Jeb, fueless and low on monopropellant, dock with the mothership? With just 100 days of life support left, can he make it back to Kerbin? Find out next time!

That's insane! I think I'll use a similar design in my game -- 680 tons to orbit is enough to put bases on the Mun and Minmus in one launch.

That is quite the lifter how many tons does it carry?

First off, love your reports! You inspired me first to play BTSM and then to make my own mission report. Unlike yours, mine is focusing on the endgame -- it starts with the purchase of the last tier 8 tech and will go until I colonize every body in Kerbin (BTSM's endgame is fascinating to me...). In any case, suggestions: For a challenge, how about a solid booster only career? At least, no liquid engines in the atmosphere could be cool. Manned missions with SRB.... or a spaceplane focused career? As for names -- how about flying things? Birds, insects, bats, pterodactyls...

(Sorry for no pictures -- when reentering at high speeds my computer does a terrible job of rendering DR's flames. Rather than showing you a bunch of orange pixels, I'll skip the pics this time). After a harrowing reentry at 4.4 km/s, the engines and tanks had all burned up. Endo screamed as his capsule plummeted through the atmosphere; the heat shield's temperature rose and rose. Even though the heat shield still had ablative shielding, it reached a temperature that was just too high and with a bang, it exploded. The temperature of the now unprotected cupola began to rise as the biometric sensor below it blew up in seconds. 1,000 degrees, 1,200 degrees, 1,400 degrees -- the cupola began letting of sparks. And then, miraculously, the sparks dissipated. 1,200, 1,100, 900 degrees... The capsule had slowed down enough to survive. It began rising as its momentum took it shooting past Kerbin, but not fast enough -- it dipped out of the atmosphere, then fell back in. Soon, Endo Kerman had landed safely, alive and well, and I was much richer in science. The Ike mission got me, when all was said and done, about 4,000 science, bringing me to a total of just over 5,000. That means that unless Duna is much more valuable Stage 1 will need at least a few more probe landings, if not another manned landing. But for now... MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Mission 2: Duna Manned Landing Codename: Red Dawn With the success of Interplanetary III, it's time to design the craft that will make the next trip to Duna. First, a couple of changes: My last reentry was far too close for comfort. A periasis a few meters off would have probably killed Endo. Part of that has to do with my aim, but part of that is my fault. I have unlocked the 6.25 meter Inflatable heatshield, and should have been using that instead of my outdated 3.75 meter heatshield. The 3.75 has a heat tolerance of 1,000 degrees (which means it was trying to explode long before it actually did; I'm lucky it lasted that long) while the inflatable heatshield has a whooping heat tolerance of 10,000 degrees. I have replaced the reentry shield with an inflatable one, and added a rear-facing heat shield to the lander. When aerobraking, I can point myself prograde and open that shield. That means I won't be able to burn retrograde, but the shield should allow me to fly lower and aerobrake harder, getting the same effect with less fuel used. Second, I cut it a bit close in terms of fuel on my last mission. Granted, a flight to Duna should use less dV than a flight to Ike as I'll have a few less burns -- no transfer burn to Ike and no capture burn when there -- but on the other hand, I'll have a bigger burn to leave Duna's orbit. While my current fuel supply could cut it, I'd like to be on the safe side. So I modify the transfer stage, raising the number of engines from 4 to 6. I add extra engines to the second stage, strut everything in place, and call it a day.

Stage 1: Inner System Research Mission 1: Ike Manned Landing Mission Codename: Interplanetary III With Jeb recovering from the Interplanetary I and II missions, which took him to Gilly and then on a short test-flight to the Mun, Endo Kerman stepped up to fly the Interplanetary III craft to Ike. The Interplanetary series uses a modified Omega-class launcher; a simple, 2 stage craft that can get the 200 ton Interplanetary III into orbit in one piece. The Omega-class launcher has served over 10 different craft designs on dozens of missions so far, and is by far the most reliable workhorse I've ever built. While it may eventually be retired if I decide to lift stations and bases into orbit in a single piece, it will serve me very well until that point. Here is the Interplanetary III atop an Omega-class launcher: The Omega lifters are not just lifters; for loads under a couple hundred tons, they also serve as orbital tugs. The first stage, which consists of 31 Mainsails, carries the payload up far past the atmosphere; at that point, the second stage circularizes the orbit and for all but the heaviest of payloads begins the next burn as well. The Interplanetary III is light enough that the second stage can carry it all the way to Duna with dV to spare. I make the burn and let Endo Kerman enjoy the ride. The Interplanetary series carries around 230 days worth of life support. The trip to Duna took 59 days, leaving me ample supplies for the return trip. Endo Kerman grins as he becomes the third Kerbal to leave Kerbin's orbit (Gergun Kerman was the first, with his trip to solar orbit to collect biometric readings; Jebediah Kerman was the second with his trip to Gilly). The trip is uneventful and requires little input on my part, aside from correcting the ship's orientation to ensure that the solar panels are functioning. The Interplanetary series had a flawed design in terms of solar panels; I placed two rows of them on each side, meaning that only half of my panels could ever be fully exposed, and even that rarely happened. The Interplanetary IV will fix this problem, but until then corrections in solar orbit are necessary. Soon enough, though, Endo Kerman reaches Duna. The Red Planet becomes visible shortly after the pull of its gravity is felt, and soon Endo spies his target: Ike. Though the tanks of the second Omega stage are nearly empty, they serve two purposes here. First, their thrust to weight ratio is so great that they can still apply about 500 dV -- nothing to sneeze at with Deadly Reentry active. Second, engines are the most heat tolerant parts of a spaceship shot of heatshield. I plan to aerobrake in Duna's atmosphere using the higher lifter stage as a heat shield and burning at my periasis; once the engines start cooling I will detach the stage and burn with the Interplanetary's engines, hopefully slowing down enough to remain in Duna's orbit. The plan works flawlessly, and though I use more fuel than I would have liked I enter a stable orbit around Duna. I do notice a problem -- the batteries atop the lander heated up to almost 1,000 degrees, and the landing struts actually let of sparks -- a sure sign that they were about to explode. I did not run into this problem when aerobraking in Eve's atmosphere on the way to Gilly, but I also didn't need to drop as low into the atmosphere to slow down to a reasonable velocity. Future landers will come equipped with detachable heat shields protecting any rear-facing payloads. Though it was a close call, I make it through with the lander intact. A few maneuvers later... And I enter a stable orbit around Ike. Already, I can tell that Ike is my favorite moon. Its pull is strong enough to easily enter its sphere of influence, but orbital velocity is low enough to ensure that a lander needs to use little fuel to return to orbit. It has the best features of Minmus without the massive annoyance of Gilly, where killing orbital trajectory game me a landing time of 14 hours, requiring a burn straight towards the surface. Landing is beautiful, though uneventful, and soon enough Endo is back in orbit as the second Kerbal to ever set foot upon a body outside of Kerbin's sphere of influence. Endo rendezvous with the interplanetary stage of Interplanetary III and burns to get back home. There is no time to wait for a transfer window with limited life support, and the burn back home will take nearly all of the dV in both the interplanetary stage and lander... but eventually the burn is finished, and Endo is on his way -- a 72 day trip with 500 dVs left in the tank. With so few dV, will Endo reach Kerbin's atmosphere? With no brake fuel, will he survive reentry? Find out next time!

BTSM is much more than a tech tree rebalancing -- it's a whole new experience. But it's balanced around being played by itself; I'd wholeheartedly recommend it, but if you're a mod lover you may want to try it on a clean install, separate from your usual one.

Hi everyone! I've been playing FlowerChild's fantastic mod, Better than Starting Manned, for quite a while now. The mod changes the way KSP works in several major ways -- most importantly making missions much harder. Electricity is actually a very limiting factor now -- you can't get far out past Minmus until you research solar panels in tier 7; those only work as far as Dres, and going further than that requires a generator which doesn't come in until tier 8. Manned missions are much tougher, as the game includes a basic life support model; getting to the Mun is a challenge, and landing requires lots and lots of work. Hell, a stable orbit requires work. Yet the mod doesn't feel "grindy", not in the least; rather, it feels challenging, and every accomplishment -- from breaching the atmosphere for the first time to bringing a probe safely down without blowing it up -- feels like a major accomplishment. Well, I've been playing BTSM for quite a while, and am now at the second to last tech tier. BTSM changes the way tier costs work -- the last tech I bought cost 1,800 science; the next will cost 16,000. Until now, my missions have mostly been unmanned; probes to the Mun and Minmus eventually led to a Mun and Minmus landing, which led to probes to the inner and later outer system. But now the time has finally come for manned missions to take their place at the head of my space program. This mod is "Better than STARTING Manned", and I am certainly out of the starting phase now. By the end of this mission report, I plan to plant a base on every body from Moho to Eeloo, and stick a station in orbit around any body from the Sun out. The endgame of BTSM seems to focus around colonization of foreign planets. There are 4 9th tier techs, plus a 5th which is available because I use MechJeb to calculate dV and is of no interest to me. These 4 techs are: Uber Rockets -- unlocks the LV-N. That's right; 16,000 science for the LV-N rocket and nothing else. And you know what? It's worth it! I'm going to need the LV-N to colonize the outer worlds. But before I get there, I need some other techs. Colonization -- this is my first target. The only tech in Tier 9 that unlocks a new experiment, Colonization gives me a habitation module that doubles as a science lab (the actual science lab is removed from the game, and all experiments either transmit at full efficiency or do not transmit at all; this makes a lab a major, major boon for me.) The habitation module also lets me run habitation studies -- experiments that take 5 years, but produce tons and tons of science. They can be run on the surface of any body or in low orbit around a body that contains an atmosphere. Habitation studies will be the cornerstone of my push to finish the tech tree; I will be colonizing the planets of the Kerbol system in order to get the science to unlock the rest of the tree. Finally, Colonization unlocks some large solar panels and a life support processing unit -- when on the surface of any body, this unit can use tons and tons of power to make a small amount of life support. With enough of these, I can create self-sustaining bases, but this isn't easy; it takes 5 processors to keep one kerbal alive, and the processors weigh in at 15 tons each. Aerospace Tech -- this node unlocks the RAPIER engine, a couple of aircraft parts, and two items critical to station building. First is the Air Scoop -- when in low orbit above an atmosphere-bearing body, this scoop allows processors to function by taking in air and putting out whatever it is they put out. The second item is an all-purpose processor that can make fuel, oxidizer, mono-propellant, and life support, but only works above Kerbin's atmosphere. This processor can make a station in LKO that allows every craft leaving Kerbin to launch empty and leave full. In my opinion, this will be critical for reaching any body further than Duna and Eve with the materials necessary to build a station or base. Nanolathing -- this node unlocks a couple of structural parts and, most importantly, fuel and monopropellant processing units that work away from Kerbin. Additionally, it unlocks a generator that weighs .8 tons instead of my current generator, which comes in at 8 tons. It also produces 2.2 e/m as opposed to my current generator's 1.8. This generator will be critical to both manned missions past Dres (where solar panels stop working) and for any station or base at that range. So! What am I going to do? That's a tough question. Colonization is absolutely necessary to finish the tree, in my humble opinion; without it, I can get no more science once I finish probing and landing on every body. On the other hand, I will be getting the science to unlock the nodes through manned missions, and I am not going to be able to do any manned missions past Dres without the more efficient generator from Nanolathing. But on the THIRD hand, getting past Dres is gonna be extremely difficult even if I do have the juice to do so, because I'd have to carry tons and tons of life support with me. Getting to the Jool system, landing, and coming back with only the life support I carry with me might as well be impossible. So, what should I do? The Mission Plan Before I do anything else, I need to earn 14,841 more science. I've probed Eve, Duna, their moons, Jool, and Laythe, and did a flyby of Moho. I've landed on Mun and Minmus as well as Gilly, and did a manned flyby of Eve. So Stage 1 will see me land on some of the other inner bodies, trying to earn the science to unlock Colonization. Stage 1: Inner System Research Mission 1: Ike Manned Landing Mission 2: Duna Manned Landing Mission 3: Dres Probe Landing Mission 4: Moho Probe Landing Based on the outcomes of missions 3 and 4, I may send manned missions to Moho and Dres as well. Stage 2: Kerbin Sphere of Influence Colonization Mission 1: Mun Base Mission 2: Minmus Base Stage 1 will get me the science I need to research Colonization. Stage 2 will capitalize on that research and begin the colonization effort. Based on the outcome of Stage 1, Stage 3 will either begin while habitation studies on the moons of Kerbin are in progress, or will wait for the science return from those studies before moving on. Hope you guys like bases!

I just wanted to say -- thank you very much for posting this. You inspired me to get this mod just as Stock career mode started disappointing me.